GEOTHLYPIS. 151 possess but a single male specimen from the Volcan de Chiriqui. In Guatemala we found it at aU elevations from the sea-level at Chiapam, on the shores of the Pacific, up to the central tablelands of 5000 feet elevation. About Duenas it was especially abundant, frequenting the reeds bordering the lake, and also in the bushes on the banks of the Rio Guacalate. In North America this species is one of the most widely spread, as well as famUiar, of the MniotUtidse. Its habits have accordingly been very fully described ^^ Its nest is almost invariably placed on the ground, and is described as a large loose structure, composed outwardly of leaves and dry sedges covering an inner framework of finer materials more carefully woven, the lining being of fine grasses. The eggs are clear white, dotted and blotched round the larger end with purple, reddish brown, and dark umber. In the larger West-Indian Islands Geothlypis trichas is also very common in winter, especially in Cuba i® and Jamaica ^^ where numbers are to be met with in all stages of plumage. In Central America, too, birds in simUar phases of plumage are usually seen, females and young birds predominating, adult males in perfect feather being rather rare. Prof. Baird, in his ' Review of American Birds' 3, describes at some length the differ¬ ences observable in individuals of this species; but he comes to the conclusion that no permanent characters are to be traced justifying its division into two or more races. This view is confirmed by subsequent writers. 2. Geothlypis melanops. Geothlypis melanops, Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 222'; Sel. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 551'; Salv. Ibis, 1872, p. 146 etseq.'. Similis praecedenti quoad coloris capitis distributionem, sed pileo summo lactescenti-albo, cervicis lateribus flavidis, rostro nigerrimo et corpore toto subtus Isetissime flavo distinguenda. Long, tota 5-0, alse 2-4, caudse 2-4, rostri a rictu 0*65, tarsi 0"9. (Deser. exempU ex Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 2 supra fusco-olivacea, alis et cauda concoloribus, loris paUidis; subtus ochraceo-flava, hj'pochondriis fusce¬ scentioribus ; rostro obscure comeo, pedibus coryluiis. (Descr. feminae ex Mexico. Mus. nostr.) Hab. Mexico (U.S. Nat. Mus.^), S.W. Mexico (RSbouch^). Of this species but little is knovm at present, as it seems never to have come under the notice of the many diligent ornithologists who have worked in Mexico. The only specimen of which the precise origin is at all exactly known was obtained by M. Rebouch near Putla or San Juan del Rio, on the western slope of the Cordillera, a little to the north-west of Oaxaca. Several other examples have come under our notice, all of them in collections of Mexican bird-skins, the precise origin of which cannot often be traced. The bird is certainly like Geothlypis trichas, but can at once be distinguished by the